Robinson welcomed voters to Sam & Louie's in downtown Sterling for a meet and greet, his second stop of the day.

Prior to his scheduled appearance, Robinson sat down for an interview and talked about why he's running for governor.

Robinson is a Michigan native who moved to Colorado 22 years ago in search of opportunities he couldn't find in his home state. A few years after coming to the state, "I realized there was a better way to do things," he said. "So I took a risk and I started my own company."

He said his business grew to become "the leading advisor to other businesses on how to grow, and how to raise money to expand." His company's success led to its sale to a large, international firm, KPMG, three years ago. Robinson continued to work for KPMG until last year, when he left to give his campaign for governor his full attention.

Robinson describes himself as "a businessman who cares about kids and the future of this state." He notes that in his years in Colorado, he has looked for opportunities to give back. He was involved in his children's school — he and wife Diane have five kids — and sports teams as well as Boy Scouts.

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That involvement showed him that "... a lot of kids didn't have the same opportunities that my kids had around technology." He started a nonprofit, Kids Tech, that has taught about 15,000 kids in both rural and urban settings technology skills that have provided them with job opportunities they might not otherwise have. The nonprofit has "really made a difference," he said.

Robinson and his wife also launched a nonprofit that paired businesses and schools to provide internship opportunities and teach kids how the real world works. That organization has merged with another nonprofit.

When Amendment 64 passed, Robinson says his wife attended an organizing meeting and saw that "the priorities were around growing this industry rather than protecting kids." So they started Smart Colorado, a nonprofit that focuses on setting "guardrails" and ensuring there are resources in place to help protect children from some of the pitfalls of legalization. "It's not anti-legalization — it's already here — it is, how do we make sure that this works in Colorado," he said.

The organization's efforts have resulted in regulations that ensure marijuana-infused candies don't resemble popular mainstream treats, and cookies and other edibles are marked with symbols to show what's inside.

Robinson is one of the few candidates in the race who hasn't run for public office before. But he decided to run because he sees his skill set as a good match for what he considers the state's biggest problem: a lack of a business plan and a vision. "We are drifting," he said. "Who are we trying to become."

He says that plan needs to start with good jobs. While Colorado has very low unemployment, one in four Coloradans are on Medicaid. That's because a lot of workers are stuck in hourly, low-wage jobs. "We need to have a plan for bringing higher wage jobs to Colorado," he said.

To do that, he said there needs to be a regulatory review that will give entrepreneurs the opportunity to thrive. He also believes strongly that technology will change the way people live and work, and the state needs to invest in broadband to bring jobs to rural communities.

Education is also a key part of Robinson's plan. "We have to do better across Colorado to provide opportunities for our kids and get the schools more integrated with the employers and the job creators in the local communities," he said. He believes that more vocational and career education is needed, rather than a focus on ensuring every student can go to college, and he wants to see more STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) training so students are ready for the tech jobs of the future.

He calls himself "a big believer in local control," and he wants to replicate "what's working." While he says "money alone is not the answer," he does believe more investment is needed in schools because "that's the future."

Robinson also believes that rural districts in particular are hampered by licensing rules that keep quality teachers — those who have been successful in the private sector — out of the classroom while creating a teacher shortage.

Another issue he wants to address is the cost of health care. He believes that can be done by putting more emphasis on prevention, mental health and substance abuse services. "If we can start to get ahead of these problems, we can reduce our costs and also make a real difference in the lives of many Coloradans," he said.

That means recruiting providers and also expanding telehealth services. Robinson said he'd also like to see more collaboration of primary care.

One of the other challenges Robinson sees in governing Colorado is the disconnect between the metro area and rural Colorado. He said that in visiting different parts of the state, he's heard from many who feel that "we've had governors who are the governors of Denver, not of Colorado," and the priority has been on what's best for Denver.

As part of addressing that, Robinson said he'd look at all of the state agencies that are clustered within miles of the capitol, and rethink where those agencies might be more effective. He suggested relocating the Department of Agriculture to the Eastern Plains, because "how much agriculture is being done in metro Denver?"

"I think we need to rethink the way we've operated our government and look out for all of Colorado, not just Denver and the Front Range," he said.

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